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PAUL:

When you see a gap in your community, you can either wait for someone else to fill it, or you can roll up your sleeves and create something amazing all by yourself.

Hey, it's Paul Wolf with a front row seat to conversations on culture from Jackson, Mississippi. We call our podcast Soul Sessions. It's the people, places, and events that make the City With Soul shine. On today's show, we're talking with Alexis Noble, the powerhouse gallery owner and creative director who's transforming an unexpected location in a University Boulevard shopping center into Jackson's creative hub. She's the founder of Vibe Studio and the Mashup and a Change Collective fellow who's proving art doesn't have to be elitist. It just has to be accessible.

You have a degree in fashion merchandising, but now you're this powerhouse gallery owner and creative director. You know, walk us through that evolution. Was there a specific moment when you realized you wanted to shift from fashion into creating spaces for other artists to shine?

ALEXIS:

I think my overall thing was creative direction. And at the time I had no acknowledgement of what creative directing was until I saw other people doing things that I wanted to do and did further research. So I think fashion was just like a little sprinkle on the side of my already creative mindset that I had. In the midst of it, have had two photography studios prior to the art gallery. And my love for fashion and styling went into, okay, I know how I want my things to be set up. I know how I want them to look outside of just the clothing that I'm putting on a model. So I went from styling to setting up sets to, okay, this photography work is art and I want to see it displayed outside of social media.

And it got to a point where there wasn't many spaces or no spaces existing here in Jackson outside of our museum to showcase local art, photography, painting, and things of that nature. So I just got up one day and went out of town and saw how one was ran and I brought it back. And I'm like, it's simple, I can do it. And I just jumped out on the ledge and started my first art show. And I knew what I wanted to have in it and I want the flow. And then it just picked up after that. And so many people were interested in being a part of these shows to the point where I'm like, can start something and don't finish it or just stop cold turkey. And I just sacrificed a lot of time, lot of energy and a lot of money to say, got to find a space that can house this long-term and not just for a day. Because I want it to be beneficial for every more this included in this art brand here in the city. love that drive commitment and passion that causes you to go out and find something and bring it back to Jackson.

PAUL:

And that's probably part of why you've been selected as a Change Collective fellow that change collective recognizes individuals making significant impact in the community. So what does this recognition mean to you personally? How do you think your work with the mashup and vibe studio embodies the kind of change that this is going to create in the change that the change collective celebrates?

ALEXIS:

For one, I have so many callings. So my calling and my initiative for Change Collective was really to beat the system so I can get in front of the youth who are artists, who are creatives, who don't have an avenue or a place to reside in with their art. Because me, I didn't have any mentorship, I didn't know what I was doing. I just know I saw things differently. So I know there's a whole bunch of me outside of it and I know that I had to do the work first so I can go through all of the bad, the good and know how to really fix it when I go forth and train and bring the youth involved so they can know what to do because everybody's not going to go to school for arts. I didn't go to school for arts. I took art classes but I never thought that I would be in a position to own an art gallery and I think it all makes sense because I didn't have much. So using what I had brought out this imagination and creativity even more to be able to pour back into the community and have a thought process for the youth who are dealing with the same issue that I've been with.

PAUL:

That's inspiring, Alexis. I've read somewhere that you said, ‘I chose Jackson because it's the hub of Mississippi.’ That's such an intentional decision. So what did you see here that maybe other people might miss? And how has the city responded to having Vibe Studio and in what some people might consider a really unexpected location in a shopping center?

ALEXIS:

So when it comes down to the location, I know that we are a gold mine. I said it all the time, we're a gold mine. I've heard other people say they're a gold mine. I think only the true people who know and sit down and watch how much can come out of Jackson and how much this can be a very entertainment, tourism city. And I've seen so much of our talent leave Mississippi and some return, you know, and some don't return. But I know that for the people here, it's like we leave because we don't have many opportunities and the creative realm to maintain our lifestyle. And that's just generally paying the basic bills. So when it came down to basically choosing this spot, I feel like this is the most unprivileged location. And not saying that it's not the only one, but the most unprivileged one. And I want the arts to be accessible to whoever. It does not have to be this elitist thing that people can come and see art. And I do get questions of why I put it in this location. I’m very happy and satisfied with my location because somebody could just be walking into the nail shop, they can just be walking to the barber shop who wouldn't even think of what art is or knew that art is accessible to them and they come in and look and they see something new and a lot of times it sparks the child in them. And then it also shows kids that that we got something you know in our city that we can go to outside of again the art museum you know we speak about how a lot of people don't even, haven't even stepped foot in the art museum because they don't know that they can go in there. And I didn't want to have that type of presence here in the community because I am in their territory as well. So it's really an open-door policy. If you want to come in and see us, we really don't charge an admission fee. You just let people walk in, we make sure we announce it. And as we get more support and more help, we can, you know, spread the news that we are here and this podcast is one of those things that can assist us with letting people know that we are here.

As far as the support, I think I have had really good support and wish I could get more city support, but I know that it will come over time. I am a Black woman that's up again, up on the ledge, on the gallery. It is something that is not normal here. So I know it will take some time for people to come around to really step foot in the space.

PAUL:

I know that what you're doing is built on four pillars. Is that right? Expression, collaboration, education and empowerment. Did I get this right?

ALEXIS:

That's some of the four pillars. Yes. Yes. I believe in all four of them, but Vibe itself is an acronym. It's vision inspired by energy. So we're just open to whatever creativity that has to not only build the space out, but build the community out. Again, I'm a big advocate of trying to close gap between the corporate world and the creative world here in Mississippi. Like I said, I'm kind of like the pig and people are piggybacking and I'm fine with building that blueprint out so others can do the same.

PAUL:

Yeah, I mean, that plays into that pillar of empowerment. So that seems to drive everything you do to empower the community. Can you share a specific example of how you've seen empowerment in education and collaboration expression? How you've seen those pillars transform an artist's trajectory or specifically impact the Jackson community?

ALEXIS:

I can say when I started my first show, the Mashup in 2002, I have seen an influx of people stepping out and showcasing their art. A lot of people have been discovered through my first art show. There has been a lot more art-based events, a lot of talent events. Not saying that that was never around, but the people who are involved in those arts were not known or did not know that they had somewhere safe to showcase their art. So I said for them good three years, I had a really, really good consistent run. And I think a lot of people caught on and at like, there's a whole community out there that we didn't even know was here. So a lot of the people that we're seeing now that's on a lot of the platforms that you all are interviewing that we're seeing like performing at other locations, a lot of them have came from being showcased in The Mashup and that's pushing therefore on our platform so they can be discovered and grow and you know, you picked up outside of Mississippi.

PAUL:

You've talked about trying to create an art district so that you can inspire other Black owned galleries. Paint us a picture of what Jackson's creative landscape could look like in about five or so years. If your vision comes to fruition. mean, what would success look like not just for you, but for the community you serve.

ALEXIS:

After going to Art Basel and Miami last year, I had the privilege to be there for almost a week or so and I got to really like tour around the city, see how things were moving, how people work together, how this one big event created so much good chaos in the city so where people had to stop what they're doing to come see this art shows. And I believe that that pushed so much economic wealth for everyone there and I'm like, why can't we do this here? And I know that it takes a lot of funding and I know that it takes a lot of proving yourself that it can happen. And I think with me having this space and showing that the arts is needed, that it can potentially migrate to one of these big festivals, which I it's already planned. I just need the money. It's ready now already. But that migrated into, we have something here. Like people are flying from all over to come to Mississippi to see their art. I feel like with that being said, that I can see, you know, apartments, there's housing, artists, that's affordable. I can see that we have multiple art studios where maybe one or two artists shares their experience and their work out of. We have other pop-up galleries. All of this can be cohesive and work together and really bring a change not only to the artists but to restaurants, to hotels, to transportation. All of it can be built up together if anybody gets on one accord. And like I said, I'm just one of the examples of that it does work and it can happen if we all get on one accord.

PAUL:

You can visit Vibe Studio at 1700 University Boulevard Suite 21, open Wednesday through Friday from 1 to 4 p. Follow @VibeStudioJXN and at @mashupart_ on social media. And don't miss her free art supply closet or the upcoming Noble Grounds coffee shop. Alexis is proving that Jackson truly is a gold mine of creative talent. We'll have links to all that Alexis is up to in our show notes at visitjackson.com/soulsessions.

This podcast is produced by Visit Jackson, the destination organization for Mississippi's capital city. Our executive producers are Jonathan Pettus and Dr. Ricky Thigpen, and I'm our managing editor. Do you want to know more about all of the great things happening in Jackson, Mississippi, and find previous episodes of this podcast? You can do that at visitjckson.com.

I'm Paul Wolf and you've been listening to Soul Sessions.

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